Using Light Projections For Protest

Multimedia artist Robin Bell has been working with light projections since the early 2000’s, but for the past few years, he’s been using them to do something you might not think of: sending political messages. Bell primarily works in Washington DC but was in Colorado recently to project images on the EPA building in Denver ahead of last week’s hearing on methane emissions.

In 2017, Bell gained a considerable amount of attention for projecting things like “pay Trump bribes here” and “Emoluments Welcome” directly onto the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC.

“It really just hit home the fact that the Trump organization is making money by violating the emoluments clause and that’s one of the things that we really feel is a way to actually go after Donald Trump and his organization is to show how they use the hotel for foreign influence.”

Bell told KGNU’s Yukari Miyamae that the light projections have allowed people to better understand particular issues. “When we think about what’s effective, It’s usually what can start a conversation… the images, specifically around the emoluments clause were really effective because it’s such a hard thing to visualize.”

To find robins work, you can go to www.bellvisuals.com or follow him on instagram or twitter at @bellvisuals.